Re: Diversity statement for the Debian Project
Francesca Ciceri writes ("Diversity statement for the Debian Project"):
> So, I wrote a draft - mainly based on the one [4] created for Ubuntu
> by Matt Zimmerman with the help of Mary Gardiner, Valerie Aurora
> and Benjamin Mako Hill - and I'd like to propose it to the DPL to be
> official published.
I agree with the motives behind this. But I have are some
difficulties with your wording; or, if you prefer, I feel this needs
to be qualified.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
...
> Although this list cannot be exhaustive, we explicitly honour diversity
> in age, culture, ethnicity, genotype, gender identity or expression,
> language, national origin, neurotype, phenotype, political beliefs,
> profession, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status,
> subculture and technical ability.
What does "honouring diversity" actually mean ?
If it means "we won't discriminate on grounds of <list>" then
"technical ability" needs not to be there. And while it might be nice
in theory to try to be neutral as to language, in practice internal
communications are primarily in English, and official or formal
announcements and documents of any kind are expected to be in English.
So perhaps you mean something weaker.
One of the things that I would be opposed to is statements like that
found in the Ubuntu Code of Conduct, which says, amongst other things,
| Everyone can make a valuable contribution to Ubuntu.
While I can see where the underlying sentiment is coming from, this
statement is patently false. I would prefer to avoid false
platitudes.
I think we should make it clear that our aim is that participation in
the development of Debian should be equally open to all,
discriminating only on the basis of people's ability and the quality
of their contributions.
A much broader statement is appropriate with respect to our users;
your broad but still non-exhaustive list is a good one in that
context. Our aim should be to support all users as best we can.
You need to add "location" to the list.
Ian.
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